Capital Prep looms for Putnam, Windham Tech

The Windham Tech-Putnam game on Monday had Constitution State Conference and Class S tournament implications, but Mighty Tigers coach Ray Elliott hardly was disappointed by his team’s loss to the Clippers, which ended a 10-game win streak.

The Windham Tech-Putnam game on Monday had Constitution State Conference and Class S tournament implications, but Mighty Tigers coach Ray Elliott hardly was disappointed by his team’s loss to the Clippers, which ended a 10-game win streak.

“We just wanted to find out how good we are,” Elliott said. “If we have some things to work on, this was a great exposure, because (Putnam coach) Willie (Bousquet) does a good job.”

Windham Tech’s philosophy heading into the state tournament is as simple as A-B-C, in Elliott’s vocabulary: “Anyone But Capital” Prep.

“We’ve played them the past couple of years, and we are looking forward to play someone else in the tournament,” Elliott said.

The reasoning is simple. A game against Capital Prep is just about a guaranteed loss.

“You go in there and play your hardest, but it’s just so hard,” Putnam senior Ashley Espinosa said. “There’s nowhere to turn.

“They are a good bunch of girls who have very good chemistry together, especially in a league like this where you don’t get to face that kind of talent all the time,” she added. “They kind of have you off your feet.”

The Trailblazers came into the week at 15-2. Their only losses came against some of the top teams from the New York City area, Archbishop Malloy and Bishop Ford Central Catholic (by a total of seven points), which has them ranked third in the latest New Haven Register poll. But that ranking includes six first-place votes, equal to that of the No. 1 team, Danbury.

“We played them at home last year and we were expecting it. We went out there, played hard and only lost by 20,” Espinosa said with a laugh.

This year, the Clippers traveled to Hartford and lost, 59-12. The Mighty Tigers suffered a similar fate, 59-15.

That’s the reason why Elliott feels that if the Mighty Tigers must face Capital, he would rather see it happen in the CSC championship game rather than a quarterfinal or semifinal.

“To me, they are the best in the state,” Elliott said of Capital. “Their 10th girl would probably start for any team in our league.”

The loss to Putnam on Monday might have accomplished that for Windham Tech. It dropped them to seventh place in the eight-team tournament.

That means a game at Platt Tech in the quarterfinals if everything stays as is. For Putnam, it means a No. 5 berth, possibly matching the Clippers with Bullard-Havens in a quarterfinal. A win there possibly sets up a match with Capital Prep.

“It will be the semifinals, which means it won’t be the end of the world,” Bousquet said. “To get two games in the tournament versus three, what’s the difference? He will have to go and play Platt, which is decent with a 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-2 girl, and will give (Windham Tech) trouble. Who knows if you get out of the first round?”

Page 2 of 3 - Bousquet added another win means a better seed.

“If we can finish the season cleanly and move along, we could get a double home (game) situation in the Class S tournament,” he said.

That hope was dashed a bit on Wednesday when the Clippers fell back to 13-5 with a loss to Parish Hill. Putnam is ninth in the Class S rankings, and Windham Tech is No. 8.

But guess who is in the field? Capital Prep. The Trailblazers are No. 3 in the division and are the overwhelming favorite to make it to the Mohegan Sun and win it all in March.

“You don’t want to get in the Capital bracket there,” Bousquet said.

Anyone but Capital indeed.

The Clippers still have two regular season games left. Windham Tech began a nine-day break on Wednesday that should give it a chance to heal from some bumps and bruises.

Late start, tough finish

The winter storm that struck Eastern Connecticut on Friday had plenty of people on edge, including more than a few athletic directors and coaches.

Bacon Academy had an especially difficult time trying to figure out how to get in its final three regular season games. The Bobcats started a week later than most basketball teams because of scheduling issues, which left them with a game versus Montville on Friday, Suffield on Monday and Career Magnet on Wednesday, plus an Eastern Connecticut Conference tournament quarterfinal on Saturday.

“It’s not a matter of liking it or not,” Bacon coach Dave Shea said. “Some teams opted out, so we had to pick up some games.”

One of those games was Career Magnet, the No. 4 team in the state right now. Bacon Academy is ranked eighth.

“I’m not really excited about playing Career. It was supposed to be Hillhouse,” Shea said. “Hillhouse is down this year, so their athletic director (who functions as AD for all New Haven schools) said he was going to send us a team — I had nothing to do with it — and he said he’s going to send up Career to replace Hillhouse.”

Then, of course, came the winter storm, which meant athletic director Kevin Burke had to get a little creative.

On Thursday, Burke moved the Montville game to Wednesday because the Indians can’t play on Thursday because of an ECC tournament play-in game, and can’t have their gym on Friday because of a boys’ game. Thus, the Career Magnet game now will be played on Thursday, with the ECC tournament on Saturday. That makes it a four-game week for the Bobcats, beginning with Suffield on Monday on the road.

“Those are three big games that are really crammed in because we started late,” senior Sarah Rogers said. “It’s just going to be a crazy next week and a half.”

Page 3 of 3 - ECC tournament

Normally with the play-in games just about upon us and the quarterfinals a week away, one would expect that the seeding for the ECC tournament is just about set.

Think again.

The number of teams involved has not been set yet. Wheeler was eliminated from contention by St. Bernard on Thursday, but Woodstock Academy still has a chance of being the 11th team in the mix. The Centaurs host Killingly on Monday and need a win to get in.

Bacon Academy clinched the No. 1 seed with a 15-0 record with one game to play against Montville. The second seed could be easily decided by one game, or could turn into a four-way tie.

Ledyard (13-2) owns the second spot but has a game at East Lyme (12-3) on Tuesday. A win by the Vikings will tie them with not only Ledyard, but NFA (13-3) and possibly Plainfield (12-3), which has one game left against Griswold on Tuesday.

NFA is third, with East Lyme and Plainfield tied for fourth. Montville (11-4) remains in fifth, but could drop back into a three-way tie with Stonington and St. Bernard (both at 11-5) with a loss to Bacon.

Lyman Memorial (9-7) owns the ninth spot, with New London (7-9) in 10th followed by, potentially, Woodstock (5-10).

If everything stays as is, Bacon Academy, Ledyard and NFA will get first-round byes for the play-in games on Thursday. The most likely matchups for those games (but certainly not in cement) will have Woodstock at Plainfield, New London at East Lyme, Lyman at Montville and St. Bernard at Stonington.

The quarterfinals will take place Saturday at Plainfield High School, with the semifinals and championship game moving to Wednesday and Friday, respectively, at Norwich Free Academy.